Montana Legislature

A Very Special Session

By Dan Testa, 4-27-07

The House and Senate adjourned Montana’s 60th Legislature Friday, and by late afternoon nearly all 150 state lawmakers had left the capitol, dumping their desks into cardboard boxes that they stuffed into their cars and drove away. 

They leave knowing they’ll be back in a few days or a few weeks to do what they could not in their 90 days here: craft a state budget with a one billion dollar surplus and agree on some form of tax relief.

A special session called for no other reason than a sheer inability to negotiate a state budget – the only Constitutional requirement legislators have – is unprecedented.

Republicans’ push for an across-the-board property tax cut rammed up against the Democrats unwillingness to agree to a tax cut they said was unsustainable. Disgust by Republicans over the spending increases to the budget by the Democrat-led Senate added flames to the fire, stalling the budget bills in the House.

The session-long stalemate proved insurmountable.

The last day proceeded in the spirit of the previous 89, with Republicans heaping blame for the failure on Democrats and Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Democrats and Schweitzer did the same to the Republicans.

In a news conference Democrats expressed resignation over the inability of either party to reach any semblance of compromise.

“The Senate’s role, historically and now, is to know when to call it a day,” said Senate President Mike Cooney, D-Helena. “We’ve punched our clock.”

At an impasse with House Republican leadership, Senate Democrats tried to work out a final compromise Thursday night and Friday morning with Senate Republicans, said Majority Leader Carol Williams, D-Missoula, but the proposal Republicans brought forth was unacceptable.

“The Republican leadership has been the cause of the problem,” Williams added.

News that House Republicans were attempting to revive Schweitzer’s original budget proposal to force Democrats’ hand on tax cuts, further convinced Dems the session needed to be put out of its misery, Cooney said.

Sen. Dan Harrington, D-Butte, motioned for “Sine Die,” the latin term to adjourn the legislature just before noon, taking Republicans by surprise. The motion passed 26 to 24, with Augusta Republican John Cobb voting with Democrats.

At the time of the adjournment, a committee was downstairs trying to work out a compromise on the main Republican bill to reduce local property taxes by boosting state funding for school.

Sen. Bob Story, R-Park City, was on the committee and said the move shows Democrats never intended to negotiate substantial tax relief.

“They’ve not moved back off the concept that they couldn’t reduce spending,” Story said.

The move gave the House 24 hours to pass the budget bills containing the Senate-funding levels, but the House adjourned a few hours later with no action taken, over the repeated protests of House Democrats.

Rep. Dave Gallik, D-Helena, tried to bring up one of the budget bills for action, pleading with moderate Republicans to vote on the bills and stave off adjournment for a few hours.

“You’ve been managed by the other side of your party this whole session,” Gallik said. “You’re the moderates, you know you’re the moderates, you have the ability to do this.”

Gallik’s motion failed, 49 to 50, with all Republicans and Constitution Party Member Rick Jore of Ronan opposed.

After the House adjourned, Majority Leader Mike Lange, R-Billings, blamed Democrats for the same thing they charged him with: an inability to compromise.

“The Democratic party always operated under the presumption that Republicans would bolt to their side of the issue,” Lange said. “They can criticize all they want – they really didn’t make an effort to come together in crunch time.”

Lange predicted if Democrats and Schweitzer don’t alter their agenda, “it will be a tough, tough special session.”

Downstairs on the second floor, Schweitzer would not say when he planned to hold the special session, only that he would give lawmakers very short notice when he did. It is the governor’s responsibility to call a special session, and the legislature is required to pass a budget before July.

Lange and Schweitzer also disagree over whether they had reached a deal Wednesday morning, after which Lange went on a profanity-laced tirade to fellow Republicans.

After that, Schweitzer said he didn’t know who to negotiate with, and he was disappointed after watching the video of Lange’s rant on YouTube.com to see that other Republicans applauded his remarks.

“I saw people that I know, who are friends of mine,” Schweitzer said, “who didn’t walk out of the room, who didn’t stand up.”

Schweitzer added that he expects some time home dealing with the frustrated public will put pressure on lawmakers to reach a compromise when they return.

But how a compromise might work is unclear, as Schweitzer and lawmakers spent the day pointing fingers at each other. Lange said he would like to meet with Democrats prior to the special session to begin negotiations.

House Minority Leader John Parker, D-Great Falls, suggested in his closing remarks another way lawmakers might spend some time before the special session begins.

“It’s a time to look ourselves in the mirror,” Parker said. “And say we could have done better and we didn’t.”

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